Legal ways for migrants to come to Europe cannot be put in place unless human trafficking gangs are eradicated, Italy's interior minister Marco Minniti said on Tuesday.
"We must tackle the problem at its root and fight the illegal trafficking of human beings, which sows death and is the damnedest thing," Minniti told lawmakers.
"If we defeat human trafficking, we can take two further steps: create legal migration channels and strengthen and formalise humanitarian corridors," he said.
The Italian government has speeded up procedures for asylum applications, eliminating one level of appeal and has boosted staff assessing the applications by hiring 250 specialised officials, Minniti said.